Two Girls, Two Very Different Dreams
If you ask me, Echidna is definitely a total novice when it comes to romance. My years of experience—specifically, hitting on literally every single woman in the adventurer's guild over the last three years—tells me so.
"There really isn't anything resembling a city around here, is there?"
After Echidna kicked me out of her study, I stepped outside for a moment to look around. It was nothing but a vast, clay-colored desert. Echidna was basically a hermit. She had chosen to live like an island unto herself, residing right in the middle of this barren desert.
Yet, her house—built as spacious as a temple—had excellent plumbing, and seeing how plump and supple Echidna's skin was, it didn't look like she was struggling to get by at all. She was basically a shut-in. Echidna's life was abundant, and because it was so abundant, she felt no need to interact with others. Since she felt no need, she didn't socialize, which naturally meant she had zero experience with romance. Therefore, she was a total novice.
"The fact that she flusteredly kicked me out just now is obviously because she was too embarrassed to be around someone as beautiful as me, right?"
Heh. I smirked knowingly and nodded. This wasn't just my mind being warped from sleeping around with so many women; there was a genuinely high probability of it being true. After all, isn't there a term called 'handsome girl'? Even like this, I was a pretty handsome woman, so other women would often startle and blush around me, even if they weren't into girls. And what about a shut-in Lamia who had zero social interaction? It was only natural for her to feel flustered when facing a woman as handsome as me.
"Ah, this is seriously way too easy."
At first, I was taken aback by being suddenly kicked out of the study, which had fired up my competitive spirit... But after cooling my head and thinking about it, this was actually a massive advantage for me. Coaxing her into bed wouldn't be hard at all. I just needed to build up to it step-by-step.
"She'll probably come call me around dinner time anyway, right? Since she saved my life, she'll at least feed me dinner, and it's not like there's anyone else here to join her."
Echidna was bound to call for me by dinner. In that case, it would be better to do some prep work beforehand so she wouldn't be able to take her eyes off me at the dinner table.
"Mnh..."
I slipped my hand under my sheer top and gently began to roll my nipples. My pink nipples stood erect beneath the see-through fabric. Any normal person wouldn't be able to help but look, and if I warmed them up now, they would naturally stay hard by dinner time.
"Sometimes, playing with myself like this is pretty nice."
My skill at gently rolling my nipples was top-tier. How many women had I bedded, and how many hymens had I broken in my past life? Naturally, I knew exactly where to stimulate a woman to make her feel good. And if I applied that formula to my own body? I could enjoy a highly satisfying session of self-pleasure.
"Ah..."
Gently tracing circles around the areola with my fingertips instead of directly stimulating the nipple itself was a fantastic technique. The stimulation didn't come from direct friction, but from the sheer, teasing atmosphere of playing with my own breasts. Personally, I preferred this kind of masturbation. When having sex with other women, they liked direct touch, so I always obliged, but I tended to treat my own body with a bit more gentleness. After all, I was a natural-born top.
This body, which was practically brand new, shivered with ecstasy from nothing more than the mood of the stimulation.
"Haa..."
How long had I been enjoying myself, letting out breathy moans as I teased my nipples?
"Um, Roen? Would you like some dinner? I didn't make much, but since you're a patient, I thought you should get some nutrition..."
Echidna, sounding somewhat awkward and uneasy, offered to have dinner together from behind the door. The news I had been waiting for had finally arrived.
"I'd love to, Echidna. I'm already so grateful that you saved me, I never expected you to feed me dinner as well."
"O-Oh, it's nothing... Of course I should feed you dinner... It's just, we rarely have guests at my house..."
As if on cue, I stepped out with my nipples standing rock-hard beneath my sheer top, grabbing Echidna's hand to express my gratitude. Echidna awkwardly accepted my thanks, her eyes completely glued to my stiff nipples...
Too easy. Way too easy.
Even if she was a Lamia, an alchemist, and a doctor, she couldn't escape the primal instinct of a creature that absolutely lost its mind over a beautiful woman. Ha, I can't wait to strip her bare and take her virginity. I'm already getting excited.
"This is what I usually eat, but what do you think? Do you think it'll suit your palate?"
Having set the dinner table, Echidna sat me down and asked about today's menu.
"Is this naan?"
"Yes, that's right."
In front of me lay a few pieces of naan and a small cup filled with a substance that had the consistency of jam. Naan was a fairly common food in regions specialized in wheat cultivation. I recalled hearing that people in North Africa ate it often, so this desert region probably wasn't much different. That was my general assumption.
"To be honest, I rarely pay attention to food... If it doesn't suit your taste, please let me know. Since you'll be staying here until your skin is fully treated, I'll accommodate you as much as possible."
"I'm just incredibly grateful for your consideration."
Whenever the timing was right, I beamed at Echidna and adjusted my posture. Lifting and lowering my hips made my breasts sway naturally, and that movement caused my nipples to brush against the sheer fabric, keeping them semi-erect even without direct touch.
"I-I hope it suits your taste. Yes... It should be delicious."
Echidna kept stealing glances at my nipples. Suppressing the urge to smirk, I used a spoon to smoothly spread the jam over the naan.
"By the way, what kind of jam is this?"
"It's cactus jam. Various types of cacti inhabit the Nefeland Desert, and a few of them produce a very palatable honey."
"Ah, did you harvest it yourself?"
"No, it's closer to cultivation than harvesting. It's hard to find food in the desert, after all. So I grow my own wheat and the cacti for collecting honey."
"Wow, so you even do farming? That's amazing!"
I showered Echidna with praise in a tone and manner that felt incredibly fake even to myself. Normally, if I stepped on the gas this hard, quick-witted female adventurers would catch on—thinking, Ah, this chick wants to eat me alive—and about half of them would subtly back away. But...
"O-Oh, no. It's really not that impressive. I only grow enough to feed myself, anyway..."
"That's not true. People say that raising an animal means taking responsibility for a life, right? If you apply the same logic to plants, then you, Echidna-nim, are basically the Mother of the Desert."
"T-The Mother of the Desert?"
"Yes, the Mother of the Desert."
"Oh, come on, that's way too much..."
Echidna didn't feel the slightest bit of discomfort at my blatant grooming; she simply blushed, her cheeks turning a deep crimson. She really was an incredibly easy target. I had planned to hold back on using this, but since she was such a total novice, I figured I could deploy that technique.
"Mmm, this is delicious."
First, before executing the technique, I took a delicious bite of the naan spread with cactus jam. The texture was much thinner and drier compared to regular bread. Still, it was thicker than a tortilla, so the jam paired quite well with it. It felt like eating a thin slice of bread toasted to a crisp with jam spread over it. The cactus jam itself had a healthy, sweet, and slightly tart flavor. It was a purely natural taste, with almost no added sugar.
"Did you make the jam yourself too?"
"Of course. Who else would make it if not me?"
When I used this as another excuse to praise her, Echidna flicked her long, thin snake tongue and let out a goofy chuckle. "Heheheh."
"Personally, I think this kind of jam is the best. Commercial jams are usually packed with sugar and syrup, with barely any fruit, yet they still call it 'fruit jam.'"
"Y-Yeah, exactly! I sometimes go to the Desert City to buy daily necessities, and the jam they sell there is honestly completely inedible."
"They say people who are good at cooking can't stand eating out because everything tastes worse than what they make themselves."
"Pfft, is that so?"
Echidna was completely swept away by my brilliant grooming skills, practically beaming with joy. Women are creatures of empathy. They naturally empathize with various emotions and situations, and they crave for others to empathize with theirs in return. Echidna must have also longed for someone to relate to her and chat like this. Because that's just how women are. I was simply prioritizing the fulfillment of that desire. As I naturally ate the naan spread with cactus jam...
Splat.
Deliberately tilting the naan, I let a dollop of cactus jam slip off and land right onto my chest.
"O-Oh my..."
I gasped with exaggerated surprise, pressing my hand against my chest and looking left and right as if searching for something to wipe it with. I didn't forget to repeatedly press and pull my hand away from my jam-covered breast, making it look like I was using it as lube. Then, murmuring that I needed to wash up, I headed straight to the bathroom.
And there, in the space I had just vacated...
"Haa, honestly..."
With a low sigh, the table on the side where Echidna was sitting slightly lifted and tilted, pushed up by something underneath... A fact that I would absolutely never know.